Double overtime effort nets win for Lady Devils

West Memphis girls drop Paragould 68-65

By BILLY WOODS

WM School District

After they gave every ounce of emotion, after they tested their weary legs to the limit, the West Memphis Lady Devils shocked even themselves on Friday night at Lehr Arena.

Buried and left for dead numerous times and playing without their cornerstone players, the Lady Devils scored the win of the year in defeating Paragould 68-65 in double overtime.

Asked how it all happened after the game, head coach Erica Leak was left speechless for a few seconds before finally finding the right words.

“Will, heart…grinding, guts…that’s it,” said an exasperated Leak. The West Memphis girls (16-7 overall, 9-3 in the 5A-East Conference) overcame challenge after challenge and still survived. The first blow came at the 3:38 mark of the first quarter when star center Clemisha Prackett was ejected for a flagrant 1 foul. Prackett elbowed Paragould center Kaylyn Lamb in the face after both teams battled for a rebound and were headed down the other end of the court.

The result was Paragould’s Keimauri Brown dominating the rest of the first half because she had free space to roam inside. Brown finished with 17 points, 14 of which came in the first two quarters.

Challenge number two was even stiffer for the Lady Devils.

With only 22 seconds gone in the second overtime, West Memphis’ leading scorer and playmaker, junior Janiyah Tucker, fouled out with the score still tied 58-58.

“When Tuck went out, there went much of our offense,” said Leak. “It became a case of next girl up.”

And the next girls were Price sisters Aniya and Alaiyah as well as ninth-grader Tyra Taylor.

Aniya Price scored 9 of her career-high 26 points in the second overtime. She scored all but one of West Memphis’ points in the final stanza.

“Even though we lost at Jonesboro the other night, we thought that was the best game that we’ve played this year,” said Leak. “But we all agreed in the locker room that tonight was the best game. As well as Tuck had been playing, our No. 2 (Aniya Price) said ‘I got this.”’ The Lady Devils gathered themselves at halftime to plot a better way to defend Paragould’s Brown. They fronted Brown and got the help from the backside they needed, but mostly Brown was unable to get many touches in the second half.

Thus, she managed only 3 points the rest of the way.

Paragould (14-6, 7-5) trailed 48-45 with just 37 seconds left in regulation, but Shakira Brown threw up a 22-foot prayer at the buzzer and swished it, sending the game into the first overtime.

West Memphis fought back from a 58-54 deficit with 52 seconds left in the first OT, but Alaiyah Price converted a basket off a steal in the backcourt and then Tucker, who scored 24 points, stole another ball and converted the layup on the other end with 13 seconds left.

The Lady Devil fortunes got bleak when Tucker was whistled for her fifth foul just seconds into the second OT.

That moved Alaiyah Price into the lead guard spot and slotted her sister Aniya into the 2-guard spot. It allowed Aniya to receive the ball on the wing, where she utilized her strength and quickness to get to the basket.

Seven of Price’s 9 points in the second overtime came from the free-throw line.

She split a pair of free throws with 2 seconds left to provide the final margin. All the Rams could do was throw up a prayer that was well short of the goal at the buzzer.

“The Price girls put it all on their shoulders,” said Leak. “It seemed like we had so many opportunities to win the game, but Paragould made a lot of turnovers down the stretch to let us get back into the game.”

Taylor scored 7 points and provided the board work and defense in the second half on Brown to neutralize the Ram inside game. Alaiyah Price, who is becoming a solid stopper on defense, sacrificed some of her scoring in order to be the enforcer on the defensive end. She scored 5 points.

Shakira Brown added 15 points for Paragould and Hayden Defries hit for 13.

The Lady Devils are still tied for second place in the conference with Marion, but the Patriots have to play league-leading Jonesboro next Friday night. West Memphis finishes at Greene County Tech on Tuesday and at home against Batesville on Friday.